Vol 3 finds Sean C at the helm, resulting in a batch which sounds clunky at times, but works perfectly at others. [Dec 2020, p.66]

This second post-resurrection outing from the New York City noise rockers is an odd one, with two halves that could belong to different bands. The first part features new and rerecorded songs, like the siren led, lockdown inspired “In A Perfect World” – solid romps that become victims of circumstance. ... The first of the late 1980s Peel Session tracks bursts with rebellious energy, generated by a nervous interplay of guitars and rhythms and Thalia Zedek’s incendiary delivery.

Prince didn’t put a foot wrong in his golden era, right down to what was left in the vault. [Jan 2021, p.94]

This miscellanea contains premonitions of Pylon’s future greatness and fills in the gaps of a catalogue overdue for reassessment. [Jan 2021, p.94]

Uniquely for Martin’s music, In Blue isn’t dominated by its low end – it’s the precise absence of warmth, the way Chen’s heavily echoed vocals swim in among the grainy textures and hypnotically simple melodies (so much of this recalls the dankest 1990s hiphop in vibe and directness), that makes the set so compelling, a perfect soundtrack to derailment and decay. [Jan 2021, p.70]

There’s a silliness and lightness to CEL that is often charming, but can stray into tweeness, and its lack of a deeper pull doesn’t necessarily warrant repeat listens. An interesting conceptual exercise but unlike a lot of the krautrock it is reminiscent of, nothing to stir the heart or body. [May 2020, p.50]

Guerilla builds upon constant percussive propulsions, creating a frenzy that doesn’t overbear with political weight and favours a sense of catharsis even through the darkest moments of Angola’s history. [May 2020, p.56]

Stripping Yonkers’s tunes of any of these traits, Dwyer makes them over into larger than life anthems and the results are pretty damned splendid. [Oct 2020, p.59]

An immediately addictive listen. [Oct 2020, p.59]

Both tends such fertile, fetid soil that it almost works as an argument against its creator bothering to break bread with anyone else. That is, until you remember that there’s no good reason that he or we should have to choose one course or the other. [May 2020, p.61]

All of the music is a kind of West African funk, a loping groove that’s an ideal platform for long, discursive but rhythmically grounded solos. ... “Leta’s Dance” has the feel of a mellow track from an early 70s Pharoah Sanders album, sweeping along like a river of electric piano and gentle guitar chords but ending with Bartz alone, keening on the bank, the new song leading seamlessly into the old ones. [Jun 2020, p.46]

He introduces a dirty P-funk bassline to an endless whorl of hi-hats and swelling chords on “Ocean 1”, sounding tougher and sexier than ever, and the album’s middle section lays out long, uninterrupted trails of conga drums and Latin jazz piano, reaching a radiant crescendo on the title track. [Sep 2020, p.62]

A loop can be a grounded, limiting element to work with – the delightfully wobbly “Slappin’ Yo Face” has nowhere to go, quickly running out of steam. Elsewhere this very quality opens up beautiful meditative potential. [Sep 2020, p.60]

Lighten up and wallow in aural filth as Siifu and Liv.e preach on keeping shit clean. Allow such a space for the exquisitely sloppy breaks and moans to work their magic and sudden bursts of clarity, urgent insights. [Jan 2021, p.87]

We should be thankful at least for this one precocious masterpiece, where even the big closing motivational ballad “Energy” comes humble and soothing. The 14 flawless blasts of pure hunger that precede it are equally spare, allowing room for all sorts of monumental chords and vocal inflections to weave their way into Salieu’s tales of frontline Coventry. [Jan 2021, p.87]

7G doesn’t feel so much like an album as an extensive portfolio of a very exciting producer. [Oct 2020, p.52]

Embracing several facets of Lafawndah’s incredible virtuosic vocal abilities, every track on The Fifth Season leaves you immediately wanting more. [Oct 2020, p.56]

Universal Beings E & F Sides is explicitly more of the same for fans of the original double LP. [Oct 2020, p.57]

The album’s 78 minutes include ample shimmering prettiness and strafing digital energy, with only minimal concessions to anyone who would prefer one or the other.

Shygirl represents the very best of avant leaning contemporary UK pop on this generous seven track EP without a single dull moment. [Jan 2021, p.85]

It pains me to think they’d record something so vacant and unneeded. Maybe 30 years ago this would have been a different album. But here and now, Two To One is a case of too little, too late. [Jan 21, p.82]

Origin Of The Alimonies is Hunt-Hendrix’s most compositionally elaborate and layered work yet. [Jan 2021, p.74]

Sixth album Long In The Tooth burnishes the group’s analogue groove science with familiar movements of heroic, brassy swagger. [Jan 2021, p.72]

Nightcap further distinguishes them as more than a clever amalgam of Dead tropes. The shifting time signatures and dramatic dynamics of “Wasted Time” suggest a fondness for Gabriel-era Genesis while the courtly melody and stentorian storytelling of “Altered Place” conjure thoughts of The Moody Blues at their late 1960s zenith. [Jan 2021, p.72]

Locked in sequences and formulae, there is a rich depth to the spectrum of sounds. [Jan 2021, p.69]

The nature of their interaction sheds light on the physics and mathematical realities which underlie music and its capacity to stimulate or move us. Often in that process Drift Multiply happens to be unapologetically beautiful. [Dec 2020, p.55]

I miss the grit and grain of Skelton’s unique string sounds, but he still gets a brightness in his melancholy, often via a bristling major chord. [Oct 2020, p.61 ]

The ten tracks here sprint, pound, flex and grunt, the guitar equivalent of a vigorous workout. Cerebral turns and Derek Baileyesque abstractions burble throughout, but Stateless hits more like a punk rock record than a study in extended technique. [Oct 2020, p.51]